Chapter 4
“Lance Corporal Scarlet, you stated in your report that you knowingly fired upon your commanding officer.”
Scarlet swallowed hard and glanced at Corazon where he was standing next to General Violet, who was sitting at his desk in his quarters. The general was more beautiful than the rumours painted her, her long shining blond hair and graceful air making her like something out of a story rather than reality, and leaving Scarlet wondering just how she’d made it to the position of general. She didn’t look particularly strong or experienced in battle, but Scarlet could feel the power radiating off her.
“That isn’t strictly true—” Scarlet started and Corazon’s eyes narrowed at the same time as the general’s.
“Then what is the truth?” The general leaned back in the chair and crossed her long slender legs. The armour she wore was the most intricate and beautiful that Scarlet had ever seen. Silver threads curled and wound their way across the black leather breastplate and shoulder guards. Everything about this woman seemed beautiful.
Since the general’s arrival, every man in the fort had been acting different, even the three captains.
Even Corazon.
She hated how good they looked together, the beautiful general and her handsome captain.
“Answer me!” The general’s voice snapped her out of her depressing thoughts and she stood straight, tilting her head back and ignoring the way her heart ached whenever she thought about Corazon now.
Since that night, she hadn’t known what to do with herself. She’d spent each night in her quarters, watching people through the little windows as they went about their duties and wondering what Corazon was doing. He hadn’t come to see her, and when she’d come to see him after the two days he’d given her, she’d been met with this.
An investigation.
“I came out of my quarters when I heard the alarm being raised. Rushing to the wall, I saw Captain Corazon surrounded by two human males and acted on instinct.” She hated the way her voice shook. She wanted to be strong now, wanted to show Corazon that she was willing to take responsibility for her actions.
“And you fired?”
“I did.”
“Were you supposed to be on duty?” The general’s sweet tone disarmed her and before she could think about what she was saying, or even notice the look that Corazon was giving her, she’d answered.
“No.”
“No?” the General said.
Scarlet looked at the floor a moment and then glanced at Corazon. Judging by his black his eyes were, he wasn’t pleased, but she couldn’t let him cover up her mistake. Even if he was her commanding officer and was doing this for her own good, she wasn’t going to obey him this time.
“No,” she repeated. “I had orders to rest.”
“And this is why Captain Corazon was on the East Wall?”
She nodded.
The general stood and paced around the wooden desk. She leaned her backside against it, her hands resting either side of her hips.
“General Violet, sir.” Scarlet stepped forwards, using the general to block her view of Corazon so she could speak without hindrance. “It is true that Captain Corazon took my place on the wall, but it was only because of the insistence of Captain Barlow that I man the wall after three nights on duty. The loss of half of the seventeenth company has meant that other companies must share their duties. The seventh company had been on duty for the majority of the shared watches. We were tired, and our captain saw that, and wanted to do something about it without disobeying your orders. Captain Barlow would not permit me leave that night because I was the only superior officer in the group selected for duty. Seeing this, Captain Corazon took the East Wall in my stead.”
She paused and swallowed hard.
“I followed my captain’s orders but once I realised we were under attack, and that it should have been me on that wall and not my captain, I went out to assist him.”
“Is this the truth?” The general turned to Corazon. He nodded. “A captain’s place is never on the wall, but in this case it is not either of your faults. Captain Barlow should have seen that my orders were impossible to carry out and brought in some of the twelfth as Captain Corazon had mentioned to him. However, your actions that night cannot go unchecked.”
The momentary flicker of hope died in her chest. They were going to reprimand her anyway for disobeying an order and coming to the wall to fight.
General Violet reached into her trouser pocket and pulled a letter out. Scarlet stared at it, her head pounding.
“Your report mentioned that it was your arrow that caused Captain Corazon’s injured thigh.” The general toyed with the sealed piece of parchment, running her fingers from corner to corner and turning it in her hands. “Captain Corazon’s report states that while it may have been possible, there is no evidence to either prove or disprove it.”
Scarlet looked at him. Why would he lie to protect her and what had happened to the arrowhead that she’d removed from his leg?
The general held the letter up.
Her eyes darted to it.
“Captain Corazon,” General Violet said and he stepped forwards, coming to stand beside her.
“Yes, General Violet?”
The general smiled at him, leaning her head to one side as she held out the letter. “My duty here is done. This is not my letter to give. It is your place as her captain to see that she is justly rewarded for her actions.”
Scarlet felt sick as the general handed him the letter and then stood. She saluted her, going rigid in an attempt to stop herself from shaking, and kept her eyes straight forwards as the general left.
The door slammed shut, echoing around her empty mind along with one other thought.
They were discharging her.
They were discharging her for disobeying her captain and getting him hurt.
“At ease,” Corazon said and leaned against the desk in the same place the general had been.
She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. Her heart ached to imagine the disappointment that would be in his eyes—or at least the disappointment she wished would be there. They would bring him a new solider and he would forget about her.
Lowering her hand, she closed her eyes and waited for him to pronounce her sentence.
The sound of movement made her open her eyes and she stared at the letter he was holding out to her.
Scarlet wanted to knock it out of his hand, to destroy it. If it didn’t exist then she wouldn’t have to leave this place that she’d come to call home. Her longing for the villages didn’t mean that she wanted to return there. Whenever she thought about them, when they kept her awake each day, Captain Corazon was there with her. Her longing for home was really a longing for him.
She took the letter instead and stared at her name and rank on the front before opening it with trembling fingers.
It didn’t make sense no matter how many times she read it.
Lance Corporal Scarlet. Assigned the new rank of Corporal of the Seventh Company from this day forth. Promoted for bravery in the line of duty and securing the fourth garrison.
She looked at Corazon for an explanation but he didn’t seem willing to give any, or he didn’t believe any was needed, because he simply looked back at her.
When he stood, she watched him closely. He was hobbling.
She pocketed the piece of paper, still unable to believe that they weren’t discharging her. They were promoting her.
“How is your leg?” she said. She’d been worried about it these past two days. She’d been worried about a lot of things, and most of them had involved him in some way.
Corazon looked down at it, the threads of his black hair falling across his brow, and then across the desk at her. “Are you ready to return to duty, Corporal Scarlet?”
Scarlet didn’t like the way he’d avoided answering her question but she smiled at his use of her new rank.
She saluted. “Yes, sir.”
He nodded and eased himself down into his chair. Clearly, the wound was still hurting him to some degree. He should’ve fed properly that night. If he had, the wound would have healed by now. Why had he taken her blood and not allowed her to get him some human blood?
“Then report to the North Wall,” he said. “The thirteenth and twenty-first companies will arrive any time now and there is a celebration being held to mark their arrival and the departure of the seventeenth. Things must go smoothly tonight with General Violet here.”
She held her salute even as her brows fought to knit together at the thought of him at the celebration with the general.
Turning on her heel, Scarlet lowered her hand and opened the door. She eased it shut behind her and huddled into her cape as the wind blew against her. It was freezing tonight and the thick clouds above brought the scent of snow with them.
She went back to the shared quarters and stopped just long enough to get her bow and her arrows, as well as her sword. She slid the sword into its sheath at her side and then shouldered her bow as she walked out of the building and towards the North Wall.
It was a fair distance from the seventh company quarters to the wall. They were closest to the East Wall in the large grey stone fortress. She made her way past the twelfth company quarters beside the West Wall and mounted the steps on the North.
When she reached the top, she found that Milton and Aradne were there. They both greeted her, mentioning rumours about her getting a promotion. She was happy to confirm them as she placed her bow down and rubbed her hands together to keep them warm.
“I doubt I’ll ever get promoted,” Milton said in his slightly feminine voice. It didn’t match his appearance at all. He was tall and slim, but muscled, his face plain and not at all handsome as Corazon was. But he was handsome enough for Aradne. The two were mad for each other. Scarlet looked back down at the captain’s quarters and then back at Milton and Aradne.
“You’re a good soldier,” Aradne said as she looped her arm through Milton’s and cuddled up to him, giving him a broad smile. “They’ll see it soon.”
He looked at Scarlet.
She smiled too, seeing that he wanted her opinion. “Of course they will.”
Scarlet moved a little further away from them, seeking some solitude so she could think. Out of all the members of her company, she was closest to Aradne and Milton, but sometimes she needed her space. It was normally when they were like this, as close as a pair of love birds could be. To see them so in love made her feel so lonely.
She leaned her back against the stone wall of the fort and stared at the courtyard and buildings. It was like a small village within the fort walls. Her eyes fixed on the assembly room and she focused until she could hear the laughter already emanating from there. It looked so warm and inviting in the darkness. So cheery. She wished she were there, enjoying warm blood and laughter.
The gates below her creaked open and she idly watched the twenty-first and thirteenth companies enter. There had to be well over one hundred soldiers between them. They would provide much needed relief and reinforcement for the companies remaining stationed here. The reassignment of the seventeenth to another garrison didn’t bother her. She’d never been on good terms with them and relations between the seventeenth and seventh had only diminished since they’d had to share their duties.
When the gates closed, Scarlet looked over the wall to make sure that they hadn’t left anyone outside and then scanned the forest for any sign of an attack. It was likely to be quiet tonight. The humans had lost many the other night. Their losses were the fort’s gain. They now had enough blood to keep them going for a month or more.
She drew her cape closed around her and huddled into it as she turned her back on the forest again. Her gaze fixed on the assembly room, watching the people disappear inside.
The laughter increased, taunting her and conjuring visions of Corazon and the general. She was a beautiful woman. Of course, he was likely to notice that and her strength. A captain deserved a well-ranked lady, and the general was the apple of every man’s eye.
Corazon wouldn’t visit the wall tonight, that was for sure.
Scarlet grumpily wrapped her cape tighter around herself, wishing it could shut out the bitterly cold wind that was freezing her bones, and pushed the strands of her long black hair from her face.
The clouds gave up and thick snow began to fall, chilling any exposed skin as she stared at the assembly room. Her fingers became numb and her nose went stiff.
She glanced at Aradne and Milton and frowned when she saw they were cuddled together kissing.
No one would keep her warm like that.
The night drew on and soon she was having to clear snow off her shoulders and helmet. She shivered as the snow soaked through her cape and her thick tunic. Her toes were ready to fall off.
Even vampires felt the cold when it was freezing.
Scarlet sighed and kicked the snow off the path along the wall, keeping her section clear. It was her duty to do so, but she was mostly doing it out of boredom.
With nothing but thick clouds and snow to look at, she was finding it hard to keep her thoughts away from Corazon and the general. The more she thought about them, the more miserable she felt.
She pulled her cape up to cover the lower half of her face as the wind blasted the snow against her.
Stopping at the corner where the North Wall met the East, she looked out into the vast whiteness and tried to make out the forest. It looked as though someone had erased it, wiped it clean. The humans definitely wouldn’t attack in a blizzard like this.
“Any sign of the humans?” someone said behind her and she turned with her hand on her sword.
Scarlet stared at Corazon, wondering whether he’d gone out of his mind to come to the wall in this weather when he should’ve been inside in the warm.
“It’s quiet tonight,” she said for want of something better to say. “And cold.”
“You look freezing.” He almost smiled. Had he been drinking? Some of the officers made alcohol from the plants around the fort. It had burnt the roof off her mouth the only time she’d tried it.
“You should return to the assembly room before the snow makes you wet and your injuries worse.”
He didn’t seem to hear her.
He was frowning at her cape.
“Like it has made you?” he said and leaned against the wall. She longingly looked at his thick coat, wishing she could snuggle into it just like Aradne had cuddled into Milton’s.
She must’ve looked at the couple because Corazon glanced over his shoulder in their direction.
They were both patrolling the wall now, acting as though they had been hard at work all night.
“I will have to have words if I receive another report that soldiers on duty are acting as though they have leave.” His expression darkened a fraction, enough for her to see that he didn’t want to have to reprimand Milton and Aradne.
“You really should go back... you’re still not healed.” Scarlet shivered when a gust blew her cape open and she fought the wind for it. When she finally got hold of it again, snow plastered her tunic. She drew the cape closed around her again and stifled a yawn.
The cold was making her sleepy, along with the white world. With nothing to focus on and keep her occupied, her fatigue was starting to catch up with her. She had slept today, but was still incredibly tired. Corazon’s orders to remain in her quarters had made her worry so much that she’d barely slept the first day.
Corazon looked pensive for a moment and then turned. She stared at his back as he walked away, and then dropped her gaze to his footprints in the snow. Her eyebrows rose when his boots appeared in view and she realised he was walking back towards her.
“I forgot the reason I came,” he said in a low whisper. She stared at his chest, not daring to look into his eyes as he spoke. “I thought you could use these. You always feel the cold so keenly.”
He handed her a small flask and his gloves. She took them without a word and once they were safely under her cape, she clutched them to her chest. It warmed through, heating her whole body until she no longer felt stiff and numb.
He was gone without so much as a backwards glance in her direction. The blizzard ate his shape and he was lost from view. She opened her cape a little and peered down at what he’d given her.
His gloves.
She’d forgotten hers tonight but how had he known that? No one but Lieutenant Troy had been past all night and she doubted that he would have cared enough to mention it to Corazon.
Scarlet slipped them on. They were too big for her hands but they were warm, as though he’d been wearing them until shortly before giving them to her. Her eyes widened as she realised that he had.
She stared at the flask.
Had he only come to give her this then? Had he added his gloves once he’d seen how cold she was?
If he’d not been attending the celebration where someone would notice his change in apparel, would he have given her his coat?
She told herself not to be so ridiculous and opened the flask. The vapours singed her nose hair as she breathed them in. There was definitely moonshine at the celebration then. No wonder Corazon had been so relaxed.
A sip was all it took to make her feel as though she’d just stepped onto the sun. Her eyes watered and she recapped the flask. She’d have a little every half an hour just to keep her warm, and hopefully she wouldn’t get drunk and she wouldn’t get caught with the flask. She was sure that drinking on duty, even if it was advocated by her superior, would see her quickly lose her new rank of corporal.
She smiled into the snow.
Things had a strange way of turning out the opposite to what you thought they’d be sometimes.
She’d disobeyed orders and shot her captain.
Now she was a corporal.
And she was one step closer to him.
Leave a Comment